This time, I will make Hobby Boss FJ-4 Fury. It is the same era as the F-86 Saber, so it has a similar impression. If you look at the wings, they are completely different, but I think the streamlined form is also a cool airplane.
This Hobby Boss kit had two types of markings. We can choose mainly the red marking and the blue marking. Both are very beautiful.
The cockpit is equipped with a seatbelt that is a separate part from the kit. I cut and pasted for F/A-18 to make it look like that, but I don’t know how it is. And then paint the buttons a little bit.
This kit doesn’t have a decal for the cockpit panel, and the molding of the panel parts is so thin that it’s hard to write. I painted it with a brush so that it has a somewhat round meter, but I can’t say much about it, so I think it will be OK if the atmosphere somehow shows up.
The FJ-4 looks like a pretty tail-heavy aircraft. There are no notes in the assembly instructions, but I think it’s better to put a fairly heavy weight. Fortunately, I have a lot of space.
(2024/06/06)
I was able to bond the right and left body parts without any particular difficulty. Before the canopy is glued, it may be necessary to brush the interior color of the aircraft.
The wings and the fuselage were attached. The gap opened up more than I expected. If the gap is worse than this, it might be better to push it in even if it’s a stretched runner, but I think I can deal with it with photo-curing putty.
Most of the lower part of the fuselage, including the small parts, are white, so I assembled them all. Items with a small adhesive area, such as panels of landing gear compartments, are reinforced with superglue.
The other day, the live action version of “Death Note” was distributed on Amazon Prime, so it was pretty interesting to watch the first and second parts of the movie. This story is linked, so I have to watch it all at once. Was it the TV drama that was said to be totally boring? I am glad that I enjoyed the movie as I felt that the movie worked very hard compared to the original comics and the animation. Although it is different from the original, I liked the fact that L won. Can’t I even say he won, with that ending?
(2024/06/08)
Again, I’m masking the canopy with masking tape. Compared to the last one I made Toryu, the work was completed very quickly. I pay a little attention to the curve, but it is good that the frame is small so that the work is not burdensome.
I’m building missiles. This time, instead of fuel tanks, four AGM-12 Bullpup air-to-surface missiles and two AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles will be installed. I happened to see the decals, and it would be helpful if there were decals with various bands, but there was nothing in them. I wish they would have thought about this a little more. The parts themselves have fine molding and are very good.
The assembly is almost complete. The mold release material is very strong, so I cleaned the surface with a tissue soaked in neutral detergent before painting. I think the paint will slightly improve. I have to be careful not to break the pitot tube when painting. It’s not painted yet, but it looks pretty cool when assembled.
I undercoated it with black. I feel like this gives more flavor when I paint the basic color. Recently, I paint AFVs and airplanes in this way. How was the ship model? I think that I was blowing gray from the beginning. This time, there are areas where the main wing and tail will be painted in black and silver, so the basic color painting will be done a little later.
A while ago, I was surprised to read that the Russian Army makes use of motorcycle and buggy combat units. According to the Russian video, they are fighting with it and are treated as heroes. If drones are so advanced that they can be destroyed even while riding in armored vehicles, they’ll use mobility-focused units to break through the front lines, which sounds like a cavalry strategy from the past. The cavalry was always an elite force. The Ukrainian army is short of weapons, so it might be overrun by motorcycle troops. It may still be done today, but I think the maneuverability-oriented tactics have a higher success rate than the combination of the prisoner unit charge and the command group.
(2024/06/12)
I masked the silver part of the wing tip. Some parts are separated on the main wing, so it was troublesome to mask 14 thin parts on top, bottom, left and right.
The underbody is a bit creamy white, but perhaps the missile should blow pure white. I don’t really know, but I used them differently. I don’t like shadow blowing so much these days, so I painted it thickly. This doesn’t make much sense as a black primer.
The white area is being masked with masking tape.
I am lazy, so I wrap the landing gear all together. Moving the gray color air brush nozzle all the way down would be about the base of the Pitot tube. I thought I didn’t have to be so nervous to mask it. But airbrush mist goes into unexpected places.
Okay, I blew gray FS16440. It has a glossy finish so it looks like I can attach decals very well.
(2024/06/19)
I’m doing decal pasting. The decals in this kit have good color and are very beautiful. Moreover, it is thin and easy to handle.
There should be a red painted part inside the nose part, but the decal is not big enough. Cutting and pasting stock decals for touch up or brush painting. I think I should do some additional work. I doubt if I have the same color on hand as the red of the decal, and it is troublesome to mix colors.
This nationality mark is too uneven and there is a gap. I think it’s great that I was able to put it up to this point, but I think I’ll put it up with brush paint or extra decals.
I also added a strap to the air-to-air missile. I haven’t painted the details yet, but I can see the completion overall.
(2024/06/20)
The FJ-4 Fury is finally completed. It’s pretty big when it’s finished. When I was looking at the box, I thought it must be a small aircraft, so it was unexpected.
After the Korean War, the U.S. Navy needed a high-performance carrier-based fighter and ordered North American to develop a carrier-based version of the F-86. The FJ-2, the first carrier-based aircraft, was redesigned for use on a carrier, but due to performance problems, it was later used by the U.S. Marine Corps. The improved FJ-3 was upgraded to be able to take off and land aircraft carriers, and was deployed in the US Navy and Marine Corps from 1954, but was retired without any opportunity to play a role in the actual battle. After that, it was improved as FJ-4, and the main wing and fuselage were enlarged to increase the fuel capacity and to have all-weather operation capability. It was eventually deployed as the FJ-4B as a fighter-bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
I used leftover decals from the Trumpeter kit to retouch the red part of the nose that was not enough with the decals from the kit. I felt that the red tone was almost the same since they are the same affiliated manufacturer. And then I retouched with a brush a little bit.
I chose the 232 Marine Fighter Squadron (VMF-232) marking on the kit. Nicknamed “Red Devils.” For a long time after the war, they were often deployed to Iwakuni Air Base and Atsugi Air Base, so they are familiar to Japanese.
This time, I sprayed the paint thickly, so there may be a part that is difficult to inking in the panel lines. But most Hobby Boss kits have deep panel lines, so I think it’s just right to be able to recognize it thinly.
It is armed with 4 AGM-12 Bullpup air-to-surface missiles and 2 AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. There are quite a lot of types of side winders, but I just installed the ones that are included in the kit.
There wasn’t any painting instructions, but I painted the firing part of the anti-aircraft machine gun with dark iron. I always feel nervous before removing the cockpit mask, but this time it was finished beautifully. I thought it might be bad when I put an airbrush on the nose. If there is a gap around here, the mist gets into the cockpit immediately. I think there were partitions or not.
Right after I played gray, it was flat, so I thought it wasn’t very interesting. I think it looks rather cool after putting decals and light weathering. Six air-to-air missiles give different impressions before and after installation. There were some difficult points, but I’m glad it took shape.
(2024/06/22)
